Quite possibly my favorite album of 2012 so far, although there is some really strong competition this year. Good to see it getting a lot of love across the board though, and I'm glad Killer Mike's finally made a record that everyone can agree is brilliant.

Pretty great all the way through, but I can't stop jamming 'Untitled' for the moment. "You are witnessing elegance, in the form of a black elephant, smoking white rhino on terraces"

One great producer and a capable/great rapper working together for a full project, discussing ideas, playing to their strengths, talking it out, inspiring each other... all while keeping the record concise and skit/nonsense free.

Album is excellent. Like everyone is saying, it does sound like Bomb Squad era Ice Cube. I love El-P. He's one of my favourite producers ever.

And like theShipment says - why can't more rappers do this? Last album that really grabbed me and had me playing it on repeat was Roc Marciano's Marcberg. One producer (him), one rapper, and a couple of well picked guest spots.

Prince Paul was a master of it, Dilla and Quik too... its pretty much a staple of my favorite producers. Varaiation within a certain sound and the ability to plug that sound into different rappers styles and even different genres.

Yeah, totally. But this is the first time he's really worked with an artist like Killer Mike. The rappers he works with have always been from within that sub-genre - Aesop. Same with the non hip hop artists to an extent - Mars Volta, TV On The Radio - they're all of a certain ilk, if you know what I mean?

You think of Killer Mike's audience and compare it to El-P's, you have people listening who might not have been exposed to one of them and I think thats pretty cool.

A lot of those guys had some kind of a history/connection to Rawkus, and for similar reasons if you heard El was working with Pharoahe Monch or Mos Def on some tracks it might not seem like too much of a stretch.

But your right, these guys are from different worlds, and it's was a bit of a surprise to see them come together.

nothing as consistent as this but thats due to production (although its been good, just not always great), not his rapping. So if you like KMs raps, then dig back and check out I pledge Allegiance to The Grind 2 and his most recent Pl3dge.

for his career though, a few guys jumped on board with him after the Outkast spot (me) but getting El-p together for this was really smart for both sides. Like CLMAO said upthread, major exposure for both sides. And also hopefully another step towards *underground* hip hop fans (I'm talking the can ox, def jux, anticon types) coming around to other avenues of the hip hop landscape.

definitely has a hint of Anti Pop Consortium with the electronic stuff going on throughout.
I'm no expert on rap by a long shot but have a feeling this will be soundtracking my next few weeks in a way that Liquid Swords by Genius did for a period in the 90's.